As we started to reach the business end of the season, every win counted and a matchup against Legacy would be vital in keeping in touch with those at the front of the pack. Pabu picked up Sylas again in the draft, and was complemented by Praelus’ Sejuani and Haeri’s Zoe. Raid and Decoy locked up Ezreal and Galio for themselves, and they’d be playing against Praedyth and Crayzee’s Kalista and Morgana. Papryze took Riven to duel against Pabu, while Rek’Sai made a reappearance for Guts. Chazz’s Ryze would round out the Legacy roster.
It was all lane pressure for the first 10 minutes of the game, as it was only CS separating the two teams, with all lanes except mid extremely close. Haeri had built up a 15 CS lead over Chazz and was looking strong. Almost like clockwork, Praelus rocked up to the bot lane at 10:15 to pick up First Blood onto Praedyth and a nice chunk of gold in Raid and Decoy’s pockets.
It didn’t take long for a huge fight to erupt as Legacy thundered into the botlane to try and blow up Raid and Decoy. They got Decoy, but Raid took down Guts on the counterattack. Pabu and Haeri had arrived by this time, as well as Praelus who swept Praedyth on the fringes of the fight. It wasn’t long until it was just Chazz limping away with his life as Gravitas took the kill lead 5-2. We picked up the first tower a few minutes later and we’d taken a nice lead in the early parts of the game.
Legacy took the Rift Herald to try and stem the flow, but we kept taking down their turrets time after time to push our gold lead to 4k by 20 minutes. However, that wasn’t the only big event, as a teamfight in the bot lane gave even more kills to Raid, who at this stage was 4/1/2 and looking extremely scary. A couple of kills bounced back and forward, but by the 27 minute mark the game had gone quiet apart from a few Baron attempts from Gravitas. Papryze soloed out Pabu underneath our bot lane inhibitor turret, but wasn’t able to get anything from it.
He tried again though, and continuously chipped away at our bot lane defenses. A brawl at Baron at 30 minutes resulted in a slightly delayed ace for Gravitas, as everyone but Papryze fell and even the Riven couldn’t last long as we marched up with the Baron buff and knocked on Legacy’s base. Guts and Crayzee attempted to defend their base but it was child’s play for the remaining members of Gravitas to take them down and take the win.
Brandon “Juves” Defina chats with Raid after the winning game
Fresh off our win @SINJuves and @SayRaid tried to do a match recap that turned into something else… pic.twitter.com/oyCohCMrOT
— Gravitas (@GravitasOCE) March 1, 2019
Our game against the high and flying Bombers was always going to be a tough one, with a whopping 12 wins and a single loss marring their impressive season record. Pabu was back on Sion for this matchup against Mimic’s Kennen, while Praelus was again against a Rek’Sai as he picked himself up Sejuani. It was more of a unique midlane matchup as Haeri pulled out Yasuo to combat ry0ma’s Vladimir. In the bot lane it was a repeat of Game 1 as both Ezreal and Galio were being played.
We picked up First Blood right next to our raptor camp as BalKhan was blocked off from ry0ma and fell to Praelus. The Bombers’ jungler had his revenge however, and appeared in the top lane to gift Mimic a kill onto Pabu. A CC chain spelled certain death for poor ry0ma but another kill went over to the Bombers in the mean-time.
By 15 minutes, the only difference between the two teams was the singular Mountain Drake that BalKhan had managed to pick up, but both teams were circling the Rift Herald, eager to break the tower deadlock even past the point that Turret Plating had dropped. An ensuing fight only resulted in the death of Praelus. Decoy was caught out at the 17-minute mark and Haeri’s solokill attempt onto ry0ma was turned around as the Crimson Reaper drained Yasuo dry for his second kill of the game.
At 19 minutes Bombers initiated onto Gravitas in the midlane, but Pabu’s Sion cruised in to interrupt the Bombers’ flow of damage and their bot lane quickly fell. However, the ensuing counterattack turned over kills onto Praelus and Haeri. The kills continued to flow, a trade of Praelus and Decoy for FBI and Rogue whilst BalKhan secured the second Mountain Drake for his team.
The game stayed quiet for around about five minutes as both teams made sure they were ready for a potential Baron play, but it was in the middle of the toplane that our next fight fell. Unfortunately, we were aced for only the life of Mimic, and the Bombers took the free Baron as our gold deficit began to grow. We fought back upon respawn, taking our own Mountain Drake as well as knocking down Rogue.
Pabu was caught out at the 30 minute mark, and paved the way for the Bombers to shove in even harder. By this stage 6 of our turrets had fallen and it was FBI and BalKhan that soloed the Baron while the rest of the team held the line. The resulting teamfight went completely the Bombers’ way as we were routed and the tabletoppers ran down the midlane and ended our week 1-1.
Post-game chat with Pabu and Brandon “Juves” Defina
